Top 10 IoT Security Tips

Over the coming years we can expect in excess of 6.8 billion IoT devices to be in use, which is a huge leap from previous years. But with all of these integrated and advanced systems, you have the potential for security threats from malicious files and hackers. Whether you have dozens of smart devices or just the one, you’ll want to enhance the security of your IoT device(s) using the following tips outlined below:

1. Know who or What’s Connected, before you can go about securing your device, you must first know where the vulnerable areas exist. The average home has at least five interconnected devices that exclude smartphones, laptops and desktop systems. The home connected devices include such things as the media player, game console and anything that has a camera or microphone and has data.

2. Make sure you do not forget to update your firmware, programs and other systems. The reason why you want to do this is because the many updates that are made available are capable of enhancing the overall security of these components, fixing leakages, and vulnerable spots. The vast majority of hacks tend to occur on devices that are out-date.

3. Secure your smartphone, if your smartphone is lost or misplaced, then this provides the perfect opportunity for a hacker to acquire it and access all your personal data on it. With mobile security solutions, you can back up all the data on your phone online, track the devices location, and wipe and remotely lock the phone. You can also add an additional layer of security to the phone by adding a Pin or password.

4. Install a firewall; firewalls are design to prevent viruses, hackers and worms from reaching the many connection of devices you own, over the internet, by blocking such traffic. Most computer systems come with extensively a default firewall tool, which you can use, and which tends to be sufficient. However, if you want to doubly secure your system, then you could install another one that comes with a whole host of additional features, which you can use to safeguard all your home devices.

5. If encryption is available on your device, then you should definitely use it. Encryption is without a doubt the best form of protection between your personal data and the internet. This is because, if someone were to steal your data, there would be no way for them to actually access or open it.

6. You should definitely think twice before giving any social network access to data on any of your IoT devices. Social networks today use as a primary storage for our most personal affixes, such as gadgets, purchases and pastimes. But this can prove to be a problem in situations where you may be on holiday, as criminals can use this data to plan a robbery on your home, knowing that you won’t be in. So definitely, you should be careful of which information to share, and which to keep private.

7. Before you use any software tool, it’s very important that you take the time to read its private policy. You should pay most attention to how data is use and store. You want to ensure that all your data is secure and private, so consider testing the rules or asking for clarification on anything you don’t quite understand.

8. Purchase a VPN router. If you opt to access the internet through a VPN, then you can ensure that all data will be encrypt. This ultimately will help guard any and all of your devices from malicious attacks.

9. Create separate network for your many devices. Most routers out there will allow you to create multiple networks. You may need to read your router’s manual for more information on how to do this, but you want to create at least one additional separate network for all your IoT devices. The more segmented your network is, the more difficult it is for hackers to access all your devices data.

10. Disconnect any device that you are not using. Be sure to turn off any smart device that you are no longer using, especially those that have video cameras or microphones attached to them. While some of these connected devices require you to be constantly connected to the internet, such as a smart thermostats, other devices, such as video cameras, smart TVs and coffee makers, do not. You want to prevent hackers from being able to access audio or video from you, by disconnecting whenever you’re not using it.

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About Kishan

Kishan Rana is professionally an SEO Expert with a master degree in IT is an entrepreneur Owning gadgetflazz & shoppingthoughts.com. He has been associated with many reputed organizations like Giftblooms , Brainybatch etc.. before starting his entrepreneurship.